be my own thoughts, I will not subject my daughter to such a risk.
And, Mr. Fitzgerald, you must allow me to say, that your income is
altogether insufficient for her wants and your own. She has no
fortune--"

"I want none with her."

"And--but I will not argue the matter with you. I did not come to
argue it, but to tell you, with as little offence as may be
possible, that such a marriage is absolutely impossible. My daughter
herself has already abandoned all thoughts of it."

"Her thoughts then must be wonderfully under her own control. Much
more so than mine are."

"Lord Desmond, you may be sure, will not hear of it."

"Lord Desmond cannot at present be less of a child than his sister."

"I don't know that, Mr. Fitzgerald."

"At any rate, Lady Desmond, I will not put my happiness, nor as far
as I am concerned in it, his sister's happiness, at his disposal.
When I told her that I loved her, I did not speak, as you seem to
think, from an impulse of the moment. I spoke because I loved her;
and as I love her, I shall of course try to win her. Nothing can
absolve me from my engagement to her but her marriage with another
person."

The countess had once or twice made small efforts to come to terms